As the Twin-Tailed Crusade wends its way across Ghyran and Aqshy, the trials of the exhausted Dawners seem to be nearing their end. In Dawnbringers: Book V – Shadow of the Crone, two new cities will at last be founded, even as a virulent curse plagues the embattled city of Hammerhal and threatens to destabilise the greatest city of Order outside of Sigmar’s own realm.
Meanwhile, a new power rises among the Daughters of Khaine – an unknown entity who could doom or deliver the entire expedition… if her prophetic words can be trusted.
Under the auspices of Pontifex Zenestra, the Aqshian arm of the Twin-Tailed Crusade begins to settle down and establish the city of Embergard on the slopes of Ashenmont. Though a mountain blighted by necromantic cultists is far from their ideal destination, sabotage of the expedition’s aqualiths forces them to ration water, and a discovery within Ashenmont itself draws the attention of the faithful.
The mountain is laced with winding catacombs, filled with sarcophagi bearing the holy symbol of the Great Wheel. These caverns are also home to rivers of pure, liquid aqthracite – a priceless realmstone for the industrialists of Hammerhal, and a resource that promises untold prosperity for Embergard’s future. Such a prize cannot be abandoned.
Back at home, the relentless attacks on Hammerhal Aqsha continue to wear down the city’s defences, as walls that have stood defiant for a hundred years begin to buckle under the Bloodbound tide. Even should the walls endure, a sinister plot is unfolding inside the city that could turn it into a charnel house of ghoulish savagery…
The witch-hunter Hanniver Toll and his partner Armand Callis have uncovered the Kingsblood Curse, spread by tainted barrels of miraculous ‘wine’. The only hope of stopping its spread lies with a band of multifarious companions, who forge deep beneath the crime-ridden district of Cinderfall in search of the curse’s source.
Will they succeed? Well, they’re called ‘The Saviours of Cinderfall’. Try not to read too much into that.
Embergard’s promising start is swiftly thrown into turmoil, as prospecting parties discover a massive realmgate to the Realm of Death within Ashenmont’s hollowed core. From this portal surges an enormous Nighthaunt warhost led by none other than Reikenor the Grimhailer, with its hollow eyes set firmly on the nascent City of Sigmar.
Elsewhere, in the Realm of Life, the other arm of the Twin-Tailed Crusade has only just escaped the blood-soaked lands of Ushoran, the Mortarch of Delusion. Marshal Iscilla Thorian urges her battered expedition onwards as the Carrion King’s minions snap at their heels, striving to put distance between the Dawners and New Summercourt.
In the rain-lashed lowlands of Verdia, the Ghyran expedition is set on founding the city of Verdigris – but while they’re prepared for the Kruleboyz, Hedonites, and other fiends infesting the region, the madness of the Flesh-eater Courts isn’t nearly as far behind them as they’d like to think. With Hammerhal encircled, aid will have to come from an unexpected quarter – such as a winged aelven prophetess with mysterious designs for the faithful of Sigmar…
Both prongs of the Crusade have many more trials ahead of them before their voyage is over, but one thing is certain – two cities will rise, but one will fall before the end. Make sure to catch up with the latest from the Mortal Realms when Dawnbringers: Book V – Shadow of the Crone goes up for pre-order this weekend.